in the future

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http://budget.house.gov/fy2012budget/Medicare.htm Maria Bartiromo: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that your Medicare plan could more than double seniors out of pocket costs. Is it realistic to assume that most seniors will be able to afford those cost increases? Congressman Ryan: A couple of things on that analysis. Number one, it fails to take into consideration the extra $7800 we are talking about adding to low-income seniors' benefits. What we're saying is protect those who are low-income by supplementing their benefits and covering their out of pocket costs. We're also saying as people get sicker, increase their payments to stabilize their premiums. As people get wealthier, don't subsidize them as much so it's really inaccurate to suggest that this is going to happen to everybody. The other thing I would say is it is comparing Medicare to a fiscal fantasy -- which is the current system is unsustainable and is growing at rates that are unsustainable and that will crash the system. The question is: what are the kinds of reforms that we're putting in place to get at the root cause of health inflation, to make our health care dollars stretch, to inject competition into the system so we can stretch our dollar farther and then subsidize people more who need it more, and not those who need it less. It's really kind of an incomplete comparison to suggest that this will be happening to everybody. Yes, wealthier people are going to pay more in the future but more importantly, there's only so much money to go around. It's finite. What we believe we should do is save Medicare so it's something the next generation can count on and subsidize it for people who need it the most, and not subsidize it for people who need it the least. More: http://www.pgpf.org/FiscalSummit.aspx